Birmingham-born Daniel Sturridge’s sensational World Cup debut came as no surprise to his first coach - who watched him plunder 50 goals in a season at the age of EIGHT.

The 24-year-old striker, originally from Hockley, capped a superb performance by notching England’s only goal in the battling 2-1 defeat to Italy on Saturday night.

Yet the only thing that shocked Pete Evans, his youth coach at Cadbury Athletic, was that he had not scored in a major tournament before now.

Because in just two years with the trophy-winning Birmingham side he scored an astonishing 100 goals!

“If I was a gambling man I would have put money on him playing and scoring for England, but sooner than he has,’’ Pete said.

“It was clear from an early age he was a real talent. He must have scored 50 goals in his first year with us and probably the same again the following season.

“But it wasn’t just the number of goals, he scored some of the best goals I’ve ever seen at the age of eight or nine that were like adult goals. So good was his first touch that rarely did you see him mis-control the ball.

“His connection when he hit the ball was real quality timing, like any great sportsman has.

“He was genuinely quick, but it was difficult to tell if he was also just reading the game better than those around him.”

She had celebrated her birthday on Sunday and, having failed to get an opening-day victory, the striker vowed to make amends in the remaining group matches against Uruguay tomorrow night and Costa Rica next Tuesday.

“It’s my mum’s birthday on Sunday and I was just trying my heart out to make her happy and put a smile on her face as well,’’ Sturridge said.

“Obviously I’m gutted we didn’t win the game because I feel like I’ve let not just everyone in England but my family down as well.

“There were no nerves at all because I know what we’re capable of. People saw that, we knew in training and throughout the week going into this game, feeling extremely confident in ourselves as a team.

“I just think we didn’t get the breaks we deserved but I’m so excited for the next game because I know we can do a job on them if we play like we did against Italy, so it’s a good feeling.

“Every game’s a final and we lost one final and we’ve got two more finals coming up. Regardless of this result, we would have had the exact same mentality going into this game.”